“I like the sound of you saying home, and meaning ours,” Ryder whispered as he kissed my neck.
“Wait,” I said as I looked around the place. “Do you feel that?” I asked as my skin grew aware of being watched, and tiny bumps arose on it. I listened, and heard the sound of small hearts racing, and I stepped away from Ryder. I heard the heartbeats of children. Ryder’s head cocked to the side momentarily, listening.
“Children. They haven’t counted yet, but…some of my men found a large group of them hidden; they are terrified,” he said with barely controlled anger.
“Get them out of here, take them to Faery. It’s too dangerous for them here and who knows how many of their parents were killed when the Guild fell,” I said hurriedly and watched as Ryder nodded his head in agreement. I knew without a doubt he was already relaying the orders to his men.
“What the hell, Syn?” Adam yelled as he moved through the rubble and bodies.
“No time to explain, Adam. Did you bring the Dark Fae with you?”
Adam nodded absently as he took in the carnage in the room. “I brought Shadow Warriors as well as Dark Guard from the Fortress. It is all over the news stations that a Fae army stormed the Guild. Humans are panicking out there. I had some of the Guards set up a perimeter out there to keep the Humans away, and others are going through the upper levels looking for survivors,” Adam said, and I watched him in silence since I’d never seen him this angry before.
“There aren’t any more survivors, we’ve already checked,” I said softly as I placed my hand on Adam’s arm, sharing his anger and pain at the destruction of our childhood home.
“We need to go,” Ryder’s voice was a sharp growl.
“Wait,” I said as I pulled back on Ryder’s arm. “We can’t leave the library and the archives for anyone to stumble on; there’s some shit in there that is incredibly dangerous. Is there any way we can seal this area?”
Ryder gave me a nod with an evil glint in his eyes. “I think we can do something.” Ryder led us to the foot of the stairs, just before the entrance of catacombs and once he was assured that all of his men had cleared the area, he spread his arms wide and let loose with a gigantic push of power, causing the entrance of the library to cave in. “That should hold until we can bring back a group to clear that place out. For all we know, there could be one or more of the relics down here,” he said grimly as we turned and made our way to the upper levels and out the front door of the Guild.
Once outside, it looked like pandemonium had taken over. Armed Fae surrounded the Guild, keeping the Humans away from it and from attacking the would-be rescuers. The Elite Guard and Shadow Warriors had been winking in and out, leaving rows of the dead behind the Fae barricade and in front of the steps of the Guild. The most heartbreaking were the small, lifeless bodies of the children. Humans screamed and shouted in fury at the Fae. If ever there was a recruiting poster for the Mages, this was it.
The Fae who had been bringing up the bodies gathered around the dead and awaited orders. This had to have been their way of saying the Guild was clear now.
“Have them take the dead to Faery for burial. They died bravely and deserve to be buried with honor.” I looked at the Guild compound where I had spent most of my life one last time. “Burn it down,” I whispered. The Fae overseeing the dead bowed to Ryder and then winked out through the portal with the remains.
I watched as Aodhan smiled as his eyes started to glow an iridescent blue. “Watch the master,” he said and I watched him, but it wasn’t him who had fire. It was Sinjinn. His double colored eyes changed, and turned to an angry red that bordered on creepy. He lifted his hands, palm up and I watched as flames leapt to life in them.